Wednesday, September 13, 2017

What Happened to All Those Foreclosed Houses?

We know that millions of American families lost their homes
after Wall Street’s 2007 financial crash. But where did all those houses go?

It turns out that Wall Streeters themselves formed profiteering
investment groups that rushed out to scoop up tens of thousands of those
foreclosed properties, usually grabbing them on the cheap at courthouse
auctions in suburban metro areas that were hard-hit by the crash.

These moneyed syndicates have deep, deep pockets, so they easily
outbid local buyers to take possession of the majority of the single-family
homes being sold off in many distressed places.

Why are they buying? To turn the homes into rental properties
and become the dominant suburban landlord, controlling the local market and
constantly jacking up rents.

For example, the Wall Street Journal found
that in Nashville’s suburb of Spring Hill, just four of these predatory giants own 700 houses —
giving this oligopoly of absentee investors ownership of three-fourths of all
rental houses in town.

One of these bulk buyers is an arm of Blackstone, the world’s
largest private equity firm. Another is an equity outfit that was spun out of
the housing speculation department of Goldman Sachs. And still another is a
billionaire whose investors include the Alaska state oil fund.

Not only do rents jump dramatically when such outfits seize a
market, but Wall Street’s intention is to impose “a new way” on housing
America: They’re pushing a cultural shift in which homeownership is no longer
part of the American Dream, and tenants are taught to accept annual rent
increases as the price of having a home.

So the banksters crash the economy, you lose income and your
home, they buy your house at auction, then they rent it to you at an
ever-increasing price. The “new way” is the same old story: The rich robbing
the rest of us.

OtherWords columnist Jim
Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also the
editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown. Distributed
by OtherWords.org.